Now, that title is an oxymoron if I've ever
seen one. Another one would be that these faithful taxpayers are "making haste slowly"
across the nation succumbing to last-minute-mania to meet the April
15th I.R.S. deadline. But one of the funniest oxymoron's was a
3-27-1987 newspaper article that said, "each of us costs Uncle
Sam an average of #3,391.00".

Some of the foolish ones, who loan their money
to the government tax free by having too much taken from their checks,
have probably already filed and received their refunds.

The frenzied taxpayers are searching through
files and drawers for all those receipts to prove they qualify for
certain deductions.

The big corporations, who have tax attorneys
on staff, are looking for all the loopholes they can find.

But if we were free, with the exception of paying
for a strong defense and infrastructure, we wouldn't be paying the
excessive taxes we are now asked to "voluntarily contribute" -
Another Oxymoron. [www.newswithviews.com/Betty/Freauf17.htm
]

Some will file extensions so they won't meet
the April 15th deadline. It was reported on my T.V. news in March
2001 that 5% of the U.S. House of Representatives were delinquent,
4% of the U.S. Senate, 4.8% of the President cabinet and get this
-- 1.7% of the I.R.S. employees were delinquent.

But why do we need all these taxes? Perhaps
a letter a friend of mine received from Oregon's U.S. Senator Mark
Hatfield in April 14, 1975 will help to explain. My friend had inquired
about tax money being spent for farm subsidies paid to the Queen of
England. The senator wrote, "According to the Taxpayers Union, the
Delta Pine Land Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Courtauld's
Ltd., in which the British Royal Family is a major stockholder, has
been receiving payments for not planting cotton on their plantation
in Mississippi. That last figure I saw for this payment was $68,000.
As far as I know, it is completely legal for such a company to receive
this payment," said the senator, who went on to state as a member
of the Senate Appropriations Committee, "I am determined to reduce
the appropriations for the agencies which have been responsible for
some of the most objectionable projects." Ya sure! Years ago landowners
were clearing the land of sagebrush so they could plant commodities
to feed the world. Today, in Eastern Washington, for example, the
government is paying farmers not to plant wheat but, instead, to plant
sagebrush.

A January 12, 1979 letter from the Department
of Agriculture indicated Prudential Life Insurance Company had purchased
the entire 28,000 acre operation from Delta Pine Land Company in October
1978 and a representative from Prudential in a February 14, 1979 letter
confirmed this only they stated it was 38,000 acres -- a small 10,000
acre error by the Department of Agriculture.

Oregonians heard this Hatfield rhetoric years
earlier when he was Oregon governor? In January 1967, a headline in
an Oregon paper said, "Hatfield Plans Tax Reforms Program." Actually
the only tax reforms Oregonians have seen in that period of time were
done by John Doe citizen through the initiative process and then our
elected officials try to find ways to chip away at these reforms.
The most recent initiative was the defeat in January 2003 of a measure
that the cowardly GOP-controlled House and Senate referred to a vote
of the people during a number of their special sessions in 2002 when
they were trying to desperately to balance the budget.

Oregon, like most other states, has been a tax
and spend state. These mostly young yuppies who are being elected
to these positions have never experienced any hard times during their
lifetimes so they have the impression the pot will never run dry.
Right now the Oregon legislature is in session and they are all wondering
what socialist programs to cut in order to balance the budget as required
by the constitution. They are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and
there was talk about using the tobacco settlement money as collateral
on a loan; however, the March 29, 2003 A-P article said Philip Morris
may not be able to cover what it legally owes. Ooops! It's back to
the drawing board.

The Industrial News Review Digest publication
of Hillsboro, Oregon reported in about 1974 that capital gains taxation
rates were at the highest overall levels since the capital gains provisions
of the tax laws were enacted in 1921 and The American Council on Capital
Gains and Estate Taxation warned that, "To help restore some balance
between incentives for savings versus consumption, the capital gains
rates should have been reduced to the pre-1969 levels." And today
"consumption" has won and savings are way down. Many people do not
have sufficient money in savings to see them through hard times.

In 1986, globalist U.S. Senator and Republican
Bob Packwood was in a tough re-election race against a virtual unknown
minister in Oregon. In order to save Packwood's hide, President Reagan
asked him to prepare a "Tax Reform Package" which got lots of local
publicity. Of course, the "tax reform" resulted in more hot air and
went nowhere but after Packwood's re-election he was later accused
of sexual harassment and was brought down by the very pro-abort feminists
he always supported. Those who say appease, appease are hung by those
they tried to please. [www.newswithviews.com/Betty/Freauf4.htm]

Now that we are 30+ years down the road, we
can see where the unprecedented rise in inflation, caused by our money
no longer being backed by gold, has caused our "capital gains" to
escalate to unbelievable numbers. "This capital gains tax has become
a vicious device to redistribute wealth against basic principles of
the American governmental system," said the Industrial article. "It
presents the very threat of destruction from within that the founders
of the United States feared might someday come. For as the resources
of private citizens pass into the hands of government, freedom dies."
And since that article was written, we, the people, are now considered
"human resources."

These warnings that pop up off these musty smelling,
yellow-with-age articles clearly illustrate there have been Americans
who have called out the warning which our elected officials did not
heed and as a result our country is bankrupt and there are going to
be some mighty angry citizens on the dole in our respective states
when these feel-good, vote-getting programs will have to be cut because
they are finding out there is no such thing as a free lunch!

To simplify things at tax time, back in about
June 1997 there was an article reporting a panel's recommendation
that the I.R.S. could do our tax filings for us. A letter to the editor
in our local paper replied that would be like "Geese guarding grain
supplies," or "Children running candy stores," or "Alcoholics running
the state liquor monopoly."

And I can't help but wonder what the I.R.S.
will do this time around to those serving in the current "war on terrorism"
in the Middle East. A December 2, 1990 article said that I.R.S. wasn't
going to give breaks to the U.S. troops in the desert. Will it be
the same thing this time?? That's about all the military needs right
now -- sand in their food, up their noses and then they should worry
about filing their income taxes too?

Could World Taxation under the auspices of the
United Nations be next on the horizon? Paul Harvey wrote in a 1994
article that a global tax was a very real possibility. He indicated
the U.N. was going to hold a World Summit Conference in Copenhagen,
Denmark in 1995 and included on its agenda was this global income
tax and he said, "Guess who would end up paying most of that" reminding
us that we are already being taxed to pay one-fourth of the United
Nation's upkeep.

Maybe we should take a lesson from Switzerland.
Harvey writes, "Once upon a time, Switzerland provided troops to fight
in various European armies. These troops were not volunteers but rather
were put at the disposal of foreign powers by treaties (called capitulations)."

He said, "France, for example, bought these
guns-for-hire from Switzerland - paid money for them.

"In the 1525 Battle of Pavia, 100 Swiss died
trying to protect Francis First of France.

"Under Louis XIV, Swiss guards defending the
Tuileries Palace in Paris during the French Revolution lost 500 men.

"Napoleon used Swiss regiments in his Russian
campaign of 1812; most were annihilated.

"In the July Revolution of 1830, more Swiss
were massacred. It was after that that Switzerland learned to "Just
Say No.!"

Harvey said "The Swiss Constitution of 1874
specifically forbids any military recruitment of Swiss to fight for
anybody's else wars...

"Switzerland has learned that when any nation's
reach exceeds its grasp, that nation grows weaker, not stronger."

And I personally believe that was also the intent
of our Founders when President Washington admonished us to keep a
strong national defense to protect our people but mind our own business
and not get involved in the foreign affairs of other nations.

Harvey then says, "Now along comes this proposed
global tax, presumably to force rich nations to help poor nations.
The proposition is fraudulent. There are no 'rich nations' any more.
Our own nation is bankrupt; our debts exceeding our reserves.

"Yet the United Nations' most recent Human Development
Report," says Harvey, "is sharply critical of the United States for
not giving more.

"Maybe this proposal for a world income tax
will motivate our president to get the United Nations on the phone
and "just say no" -- before, defending a mongrel flag, we bleed to
death."

Let me end with April's Most Unpopular Day:

Now he's a common, common man, Tax him, tax him
all you can. Tax his house and tax his bed, Tax the bald spot on his
head. Tax his bread and tax his meat, Tax his shoes right off his
feet. Tax his auto and tax his gas, Tax the road that he must pass.
Tax the farmer, tax his fowl, Tax the dog and tax his howl. Tax his
plow and tax his clothes, Tax the rags that wipe his nose. Tax the
pig and tax his squeal, Tax his boots, run down at the heel. Tax his
cow and tax his calf, Tax him if he dares to laugh. Tax the water
and tax the air, Tax the sunshine if you dare. Tax the living, tax
the dead, Tax the unborn 'fore they're fed. Tax them all and tax them
well, do your best to make life hell." --Anonymous.

Betty is a former Oregon Republican Party
activist having served as state party secretary, county chairman,
5th congressional vice chairman and then elected chairman, a precinct
worker for many years and twice ran unsuccessfully for the Oregon
State Legislature. The Republican tradition is to stay neutral in
Primary races but in Betty's case. They supported her opponent. E-Mail:
bettyfreauf@webtv.com